Measuring and reporting on forest landscape pattern, fragmentation and connectivity in Europe: methods and indicators
This report presents and demonstrates possible solutions to implement two headline policy indicators listed under the biodiversity criteria: the EEA/SEBI2010 Indicator 13 ‘fragmentation and connectivity of ecosystem’ and the MCPFE 4.7 Indicator ‘Landscape level forest spatial pattern. Focus is clearly on large regions assessment and on the change in the forest landscape structure (spatial pattern), not its function or quality. A brief review of knowledge enabled to select important concepts and principles to address spatial pattern processes likely to have ecological effects. It is proposed to make the assessment at local level with relatively fine-grained data and the reporting per spatial units which best capture local processes without loosing too much information. In some cases, forest losses must be disaggregated from forest gains and treated separately. Measures for MCPFE 4.7 are based on (1) the morphology of the forest cover in terms of core forest (interior forest with a 100m edge width) and forest edge, also providing an insight on connectors, and on (2) the landscape context of forest in its close (50 ha) surroundings (natural context or mixed forest-non forest interface zones with agriculture and/or infrastructure). The temporal stability of core forest (i.e. forest potentially staying in the same conditions), the increase of edges and the loss of forest in a natural context are measured. For the SEBI2010 indicator 13, fragmentation is looked upon when associated to core forest loss and each of the four spatial pattern processes (attrition, perforation, shrinkage, fragmentation/breaking-apart) that potentially contribute to four effects (sample, area, edge, isolation) on forest habitat and species is quantified. Measures on forest connectivity combine the landscape and organism dimensions; they account for the habitat availability and inter-patch functional distances.
- Εκδότης: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
- Δημιουργός: Estreguil Christine and Coralie Mouton / European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
- Πηγή: EU Publications
- Ιστότοπος: https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/712f1d96-8007-4d63-b4fa-2fd5d1e51806
- Γλώσσα: Αγγλική
- Άδεια Χρήσης: Αναφορά στην πηγή
- Έτος: 2009
- Βιβλιογραφία: Estreguil Christine and Coralie Mouton / European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability. 2009. Measuring and reporting on forest landscape pattern, fragmentation and connectivity in Europe: methods and indicators. Scientific and Technical Research series. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Luxembourg. 68 p.
